Following Zach Brown on his mission to Leeds, England. Beginning 7/31/2013.

Elder Zachary Brandon Brown

England Leeds Mission

Lister House, Lister Hill

Horsforth

Leeds

England LS18 5AZ

Monday, February 10, 2014

Another Great Week in England!

Hello, matka a patka moje :) . You're right, I found a loophole in using Slovak accent marks--I typed them all into a Word document while I was at a different library and saved the file to my account, and now I can just copy and paste them into my emails wherever I am. President Pilkington let me know about Grandma. It's definitely not easy to get that kind of news while far away and be unable to do anything. But God looks after me, and I know he does the same for you. I sent a letter on Wednsday or Thursday last week, so you should get it about that time this week. It's been a long time in coming, I know, but I finally got it done. I have had a lot of miracles this week, too many to fit in here, but I'll do my best to get the best ones in that I can.

This week, as you know already, I was called by the mission president to be the trainer of a new Slovak-speaking Elder named Elder Frahm. He's the one who met Laura Tureson, and like you said, he's from Roy, Utah. He's a great guy who's really devoted to the work and has a lot of desire to learn the language and work hard. He's a convert to the church himself, and has been a member for two years. I've been really impressed by him and his efforts, and he's already learned a ton language-wise and in teaching. Elder Sindylek is still with us, but only for a little longer (until transfers roll around, because Elder Frahm came in mid-transfer, having been in the MTC for a transfer and a half) . This means we're in a trio, which is really interesting. We've had to adjust our teaching to account for another missionary being with us, but things are going really well.

The most recent of the miracles of this week were first: M's baptism! He's a wonderful man and has a powerful testimony about the truth of the gospel. He shared this after his baptism, and several other people came up and bore their own testimonies of how the gospel has blessed their lives. F (baptized the week before M) was one of them, and being the one who introduced us to M initially made it all the more from the heart. It was about helping people who are in need because that's what Christ did, and it really touched me, and I could see it doing the same for all the people there, too.

We found a new family of people who have turned out to be very receptive to the message we bring to the world. We were at an investgator's house in Firth Park, and after the lesson with him, he told us that he had a relative that he wanted us to see, and he took us over to meet with him. We ended up scheduling the man and his wife for baptism, and he and his two sons walked to church with us on Sunday (his wife had to take care of a sick baby and toddler at home, but will come next week) . This family, like virtually every family we've worked with, has come from a very hard situation and an exceedingly difficult life. I honestly don't know how they make it through the things that they do. P (the name of the father and the oldest son) told us that for the four months he's been here in England, he's been looking for someone to speak to him the word of God, but he couldn't find anyone. He was so happy to have found us, and even though we only had a little bit of time before we had to go, I could see the joy that filled his home as we testified of our Father in Heaven's love for his children. I'm so glad that P's relative, our investigator, was inspired by God to have us go by, because now we can bring the joy and peace of God's gospel to another home prepared to accept and cherish it.

This week's been powerfully spiritual, and with the trials have come the blessings of a Father in Heaven who cares. I love you very much, and I hope my letter gets to you soon. Dad, you especially I want to let you know that I love you. When I get home we have a lot of making up to do for father-son time--I hope you're keeping a list of all the games we have to play and all the movies we need to see :) . Keep a smile on :) .